Although the Bulls are two months into the 2017-18 NBA season, there's one moment that constantly hangs over this franchise (not the Jimmy Butler trade) - the October practice fight between Nikola Mirotic and Bobby Portis that put Mirotic in the hospital and earned Portis an eight-game suspension. This unfortunate occurrence continues to rear its ugly head in the Bulls locker room.

It reached another peak last week when Mirotic returned to full practices for the first time since the injury. When the native of Montenegro spoke to the media for the first time, he said that he finally accepted the apology that Portis had been trying to make to him since the incident happened. However, there is doubt about the sincerity of that acceptance. The 26-year-old also stated that he hopes to be the starting power forward again sooner rather than later, something that was set in stone before Portis punched him in the face.

So now with both men back on the roster at the same time here's the situation: the relationship between Portis and Mirotic at this point is icy at best, while rookie Lauri Markkanen has adapted to the NBA for the most part. This creates three questions that need to be answered...

Can head coach Fred Hoiberg find playing time for all three power forwards?

Will Portis and Mirotic truly make up and support Markkanen's ascension while watching from the bench most nights?

And considering the potential egos involved, can all three co-exist?

While the definite answers to those questions will be answered over time, here's what we know now. Mirotic has yet to play a game this season in order to make his case to be the starter once again. He's spent the last week getting his conditioning and timing back, but the hope is that he'll his make his season debut on Friday night against the Hornets.

Once Mirotic does take the court, he'll need to earn his way back into the rotation by showing his conditioning, producing on offense and proving that he's a good teammate despite everything that's transpired over the last two months.

Despite missing some brief time with an arm injury, Portis has put up respectable numbers since returning from his suspension. He's fifth on the team in scoring (12.0 points per game), second in rebounding (7.0 boards per game) behind Markkanen (7.9), and slowly trying to live up to the expectations set before him for this season. After serving his suspension, Portis was the main backup to Markkanen. It'll be interesting to see how he responds to either sharing those duties with Mirotic, or even competing with him to be the primary backup.

As far as Markkanen is concerned, he won't be riding the bench for now. The Finnish-born 7-footer is tied for the team lead in scoring with Justin Holiday (14.3 points per game), leads the Bulls in both rebounding and double-doubles (six) and is quickly developing into the stretch-4 that Hoiberg needs to run his offense. He has struggled recently, shooting 31.2 percent from the field and 27.1 percent from 3-point range in his last nine games, but it's also difficult being one of the main threats on what has been the worst offense in the NBA.

The 20-year-old is still working on his defensive skill set, but his offensive contributions have earned him an average of 30.6 minutes per game. So far, Markkanen has been able to tune out the noise regarding Portis and Mirotic. But will that dynamic change with both of them waiting their turn on the bench at the same time?

When you think about it, Markkanen as rookie is becoming everything the Bulls hoped Mirotic could have been during his first NBA season. Portis, on the other hand, is just starting to put it together after two subpar seasons. In the end, all three players bring qualities to the table that should benefit the Bulls in the long-term. Markkanen is quickly learning as a first-year player, Mirotic has made his fair share of clutch shots when healthy and Portis is probably the best defensive player out of the group.

Spreading the minutes evenly between all three to get all of those qualities on the court will be the challenge for Hoiberg, and how that effects cohesion and chemistry between these men will be the focus moving forward.